The following is excerpted from Mitch Horowitz’s book The Miracle Club (Inner Traditions). BY MITCH HOROWITZ The writer and religion scholar Michael Muhammad Knight saw Spike Lee’s movie Malcolm X at age 15 and began his conversion to Islam. “Can a movie,” Mike wondered, “be sacred scripture?” I strongly believe that it can. For me,…
By Mitch Horowitz Why is the term “self-help” so often used in a derogatory manner in mainstream media? Writing in the opinion journal Aeon, journalist and social critic Elizabeth Svoboda recently sized up today’s self-help field and concluded that some cognitively based self-help books are effective – and well worth defending – whereas New…
BY HARV BISHOP The unalterable New Age belief that there are no accidents ironically began as an historical accident of sorts, Mitch Horowitz writes in his book “One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life.” This belief has been popularized by everyone from Deepak Chopra to Kung Fu Panda. In 1886, mental healer Warren…
